Lemons into Lemonade

So generally when someone says that, they have had something sad happen and they are trying to make the best of it. Well, not so in this case. I had a wonderful thing happen, I was the lucky recipient of box of lemons from Greenclogs. I am going to post a number of recipes that will use these wonderful lemons, but the most basic, most simple, most perfect use is lemonade. I had used a number of lemons for their wonderful rind to steep in vodka for limoncello cream. My lovely daughter announced, I want lemonade! The DH replied, I don't think we have any lemonade. I looked at him, with a lemon in my hand, and said, um, how about lemons?

Lemonade is really quite simple, and one wonderful tip, make a simple syrup rather than using straight sugar, and you won't get a grainy batch of sugar in the bottom of your container

A simple recipe is 1 part sugar, 1 part water, 1 part lemon juice + 3-4 parts cold water for a wonderful lemonade. That breaks down to:

1 c sugar
1 c water
1 c lemon juice
3-4 c cold water

Make a simple syrup with the water and sugar by heating the two in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved. Add the lemon juice to the simple syrup. Finally, in your beverage container, combine the lemon syrup with your water. If it's too sweet, add a bit more lemon juice. Chill.

I like sweet lemonade and rather strong, so I do only 3 cups of water rather than 4.

And on nights like tonight, when I wanted it fast, I made an ice water bath of 6-7 cups, then used that lovely icy cold water to mix with the lemon syrup so I could drink it immediately, omitting that silly "Chill" step. Or maybe that step wasn't for the lemonade but more for me!